B-Sens stifle St. John's in 2-1 win

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wbng sports

March 28, 2014Updated Mar 28, 2014 at 11:48 PM EDT

BINGHAMTON (WBNG BINGHAMTOn) The Binghamton Senators remained atop the East Division with a 2-1 win over the visiting St. John’s IceCaps on Friday night. The B-Sens notched two goals in the third period to overcome the 1-0 deficit and defeated the IceCaps for the first time this season. Andrew Hammond played stellar in net allowing just one goal on 41 shots faced.

Binghamton controlled the puck for much of the opening period as they managed to put 17 shots on goal. St. John’s Tyler Beskorowany stopped all of Sens chances through the first 20 minutes while Hammond turned aside all 14 IceCaps tries to send the teams to the intermission deadlocked at zero.

St. John’s opened the scoring at the 16:59 mark of the middle frame when Jason Jaffray buried a loose puck on the mouth of the crease for his 18th goal of the season.

Less than one minute later, it appeared as though the IceCaps were going to double their lead as they pressured hard in the Sens defensive zone. However, Hammond and his teammates were stellar as they stopped a handful of doorstep shots to keep the deficit at just one heading into the final intermission.

Binghamton managed to even the score at one apiece when Matt Puempel pushed home his 25th goal of the year at the 7:29 spot of the third. Stephane Da Costa picked up the primary assist as he weaved the puck through heavy traffic before finding Puempel on the crease. With the assist Da Costa increased his point-scoring streak to nine straight games.

The B-Sens grabbed the lead about a minute past the midway point of the period when Shane Prince one-timed a Da Costa pass past Beskorowany. Binghamton managed to hold off a heavy attack from St. John’s late in regulation to cling to the 2-1 victory in the final game of the four-game season series.

In addition to Hammond’s hardnosed 40-save performance, Binghamton was led by Puempel who ended the night with a goal and an assist while Da Costa finished with two helpers. Beskorowany played tough in the losing effort as he stopped 38 of Binghamton’s 40 shots on goal.

Binghamton travels to Syracuse tomorrow night for a 7:00p.m. matchup against the Crunch before they finish up the busy weekend with a trip to Albany on Sunday at 3:00p.m. Both games can be heard live on Oldies 96.9 FM or WINR 680AM.